1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a clinical-path management server and a clinical-path management system that manage a clinical path in which medical care information of a patient is recorded.
2. Description Related to the Prior Art
In the medical field, a clinical-path management system including a clinical-path management server that manages a clinical path in which medical care information of a patient has been recorded, and a terminal capable of accessing the clinical-path management server is known (see JP2008-059316A). The clinical path is medical care schedule data in which medical care information on a schedule and a record of medical care (diagnosis and treatment) performed on a patient has been recorded in time series. The medical care information includes a schedule of medical care activity such as tests, medical examination, surgery, or medication, and results or records of the medical care activity such as a test result, a medical examination record, and a medication result. Further, since the clinical path is information created for each patient, patient information such as a name, an age, and a gender of the patient, or a name or an Identification Data (ID) of an attending doctor responsible for the patient, and the like are recorded in the clinical path.
The clinical path management server described in JP2008-059316A receives an access from a terminal of an attending doctor, a nurse, or the like, and permits the terminal to view or edit the clinical path. Further, the clinical path management server also receives an access from a terminal of a patient such that the patient can view the clinical path. The patient can recognize details of content of medical care and a policy of the medical care by viewing the clinical path.
Further, the clinical-path management server of JP2008-059316A has a function of requesting a doctor other than the attending doctor to provide a second opinion for the content of medical care which is an opinion of a doctor other than the attending doctor in a case in which the patient wants to acquire a second opinion. The patient can use the second opinion to determine whether or not the medical care policy of the current attending doctor is appropriate.
If the clinical path management server in JP2008-059316A receives a request for acquisition of the second opinion from the patient, the clinical path management server transmits patient information and request information to a doctor who is a request destination of the second opinion to perform a request for creation of the second opinion. When the request information is transmitted, information on the clinical path of the patient is attached, if necessary. The doctor who is the request destination can recognize content of medical care of the patient to date or a future care plan by referring to an electronic medical record or the clinical path, to create the second opinion.
If the second opinion is created, data of the created second opinion is transmitted from the doctor who is a request destination to the clinical-path management server. If the clinical path management server receives the second opinion, the clinical path management server distributes the clinical path created by the attending doctor and the second opinion to a terminal of the patient such that the clinical path and the second opinion can be contrasted with each other. Further, the second opinion can be distributed to the attending doctor if the patient desires the distribution.
However, in the clinical-path management server of JP2008-059316A, there is a problem in that a function of managing the data after the creation of the second opinion is complicated. This is because the second opinion is created as separate data from the clinical path. Therefore, it is necessary for the clinical-path management server to have a configuration for managing the data of a second opinion having a different data format, in addition to a configuration for managing data of the clinical path.
Further, for example, a display format changing process for changing a display format of the second opinion data into a display format of the clinical path is also necessary in order to display the second opinion and the clinical path in a format facilitating the contrasting since the data formats are different. In a case in which the display format changing process is performed, for example, a process of comparing data having different formats with each other and extracting data of the same item to be contrasted is necessary. In a case in which the data format is changed by the request destination, the display format changing process becomes more complicated in order to cope with a variety of data formats.
Further, for a second opinion requesting function, it is necessary for the clinical-path management server to have a function of attaching information on the clinical path to patient information or request information and transmitting the result information when performing the request with respect to a request destination. This clinical path attachment function also causes complication of a configuration. Since the clinical-path management server is originally a server that manages data of the clinical path, costs or time and efforts for modification should be minimized when additional functions such as the second opinion requesting function are added.